Donegal sees €3.2m loss

Donegal Creameries fell into the red last year, showing a pre-tax loss of nearly €3.2 million, but boosted revenues by almost 14%.

The drop in fortunes was mainly due to last year’s restructuring efforts by the Letterkenny-headquartered group, which has repositioned itself into a broad agri-services business rather than chiefly a dairy company. Operating profit, before exceptional items were taken into account, fell by just over 8% to €3.64m. There was also a 24.3c drop in adjusted earnings per share — from 73.1c to 48.8c.

Despite the company’s net debt also rising, last year from €23.2m to €32.9m — mainly due to acquisition costs — the dividend per share was unchanged at 16c.